There are two ways to invite students to join your Community;
Our private invite: Adding students individually via specific email addresses and having a series of Unibuddy email invites (with your branding)
A unique shareable URL/QR code: Sharing a link to a wider group so that they can sign themselves up (meaning individual invites aren't required)
If you opt for the private invite, you can also follow this up by sending your own invites.
For instructions on how to utilize these methods, please either follow the steps below, or feel free to watch this short video!
Log into your University Dashboard and select Community from the navigation bar on the left-hand side.
Click on the Community you'd like to add students to.
Option One: Inviting specific email addresses and having a series of Unibuddy email invites (with your branding) sent to them
Under your Users tab, scroll to Private invite.
Copy and paste the emails of students you'd like to invite to your Community into the Enter Email Addresses section. Either separate each email address with a space, or paste a column from a spreadsheet or .csv file (you can paste up to 5000 at a time!)
Click Send invites. This will send an automated invite with your branding, and has our highest student sign-up rate.
After you click Send invites, your students will automatically be invited and granted access to your Community. Only the email addresses you have entered will be able to access. This will also pre-populate the email address that you have invited, so there is no confusion on the student's part as to which email address to use.
Your students will receive an email invitation with your logo and branding which looks like this:
They will automatically be entered into an email nurture campaign which will send them periodic reminders (2 days, 4 days later, and 8 days later) if they have not yet joined. As soon they join your Community, they will no longer be sent reminders.
Should you wish to, you can also send your own email invites afterwards.
Copy and paste the emails of students you have already invited within the Enter Email Addresses section under Private invite.
Add these email addresses into your own email or CRM.
Scroll to the top of the page, and right-click on Open Community.
Click Copy Link Address. This is the link that you should share with these students in your own email invites. Please note that you will have to send the Unibuddy private invite first, in order for these email addresses to be granted access.
📮 If you send your own email invites, students will not be entered into our invite reminder nurture campaign. They are only entered into this reminder flow if you use the Unibuddy private invite 📮
To help you make your email invites useful to your students, you can include the following links to access your Community:
Option two: Using the unique shareable invite link
🔗 Please note, that anyone with the shareable link can sign themselves up to Community, whereas with the Private invite options, only the emails that have been invited can access 🔗
Under your Users tab, click on the Shareable invite option at the top
You can choose to Share via URL, in which case you can copy your unique shareable link and embed this into offer holder letters, accepted student comms, your offer holder page/portal on your website, or any other touch points with accepted students.
Alternatively, you can Share via QR code, and download your unique QR code to add to comms, marketing collateral, webinar slides, or open day/event posters and flyers.
The shareable link is particularly useful if you'd like to;
Send an invite to a large number of users at once
Share the link on social media or other channels
Embed a link into your webpage or offer holder portal
Use a QR code for flyers, posters at open days and events, webinar slides, or offer holder comms
Once those invite emails have been sent, what will those Students see?
Students will receive the following email in their inboxes (with your logo and branding, and your institution and Community name):
2. After arriving in Community, the students can sign up or log in if they already have an existing Unibuddy account.
📬 PLEASE NOTE: The students must use the email address you have granted access to, if you use the private invite method.
With the Unibuddy-sent private invite method, students' emails are pulled through automatically to the sign-up page, meaning they don't have to remember to use the same one they were invited with (one of the reasons we think this method has the highest sign-up rate!) 📬
They will be asked to verify their account with a code sent to them, keeping your Community safe and secure.
Once signed up, they'll be shown the Community you've invited them to.
They will be taken to the Explore tab, where they will see the entire list of Groups you've created, as well as a prompt to complete their profile, so they can match with other students.
Upon making their selection, the Students can then start chatting to those within the Group.
They can also visit your Updates tab, where they will see announcements, reminders, and useful info posted by you as an admin, and your ambassadors, if applicable.
